Tour De France - PlayStation 2

Tour de France features the usual arcade, practice and career modes. The real play value lies in the career mode: the aim is to win the Tour De France within five years of your racer's debut. Once you've created a rookie racer, you're signed up to a team and left to manage your racer over each season. Choose to race in minor road races, train your racer or rest to recuperate those muscles: it all helps to hone your cyclist's skills for the Tour itself, an A to B racer in which the aim--surprise surprise--is to come first.

Your racer pedals at a steady pace with a constant press on the X button; frantic button-pushing is needed to raise the rider from the seated position for the more intense periods and sprints. Some very clever strategic elements await, the ability to slipstream being a major plus--as you move through the Peloton you'll need to slipstream to renew energy, making it impossible to succeed merely by the aforementioned frenzied bashing of buttons.

Overall, Tour de France is highly recommended; riders and team names are all correct, and the title seems very polished, but--and this is a big but--there's a lack of different stages and sadly the actual Tour is only six stages long. However, if you're a fan of le Tour, then this is certainly a game to try. --Laurent S Hall